Seven Solutions to Rein In Abuses of Executive Power

Seven Brennan Center authors present an institutional reform agenda aimed at checking presidential power rather than relying on the character of a particular officeholder. The proposals address emergency authorities, politicized law enforcement, domestic military deployment, impoundment, congressional oversight, executive secrecy, and protections for independent administration.

The report's value is structural: it specifies mechanisms Congress can enact and invites evaluation of tradeoffs rather than treating electoral turnover as sufficient reform. It also acknowledges that public institutions need capacity as well as constraint, positioning safeguards as a way to restore legitimate action instead of making government inert.